NLSC Music Club '11

[Lamrock]

Yeah, we're doing albums again.

For all the people who are new to this (like anybody who wasn't in before would join), every week, someone will suggest an album for everyone in the club to listen to and review it. To join the club, just post saying you're in and you'll be put on the list of people making suggestions. Only requirement is to listen to the album and review it. When its your turn to suggest an album, you post a censored download link in a code box, like this:

Code: Select all

http://www.med!afire.com/?ydmggoggwm2

(copy into browser, turn "med!afire" into "mediafire")

On that note, that's the album. It's one of my favorites.

[Oznogrd]

Ill try to be in as much as i can...is this beck odelay? Don't need to d/l it. Wil ltry to review it later

[Kenny]

I'm interested in doing this... I'll hopefully get around to listening to that album soon.

[Lamrock]

Yeah, its a good one.

[Oznogrd]

are we doing full reviews or just one sentence: its good?

[Lamrock]

Beck - Odelay (1996)

Odelay is Beck's fifth studio album (second on a major label), and is widely considered to be his best. My family have always been Beck fans, and even as my music tastes have changed, Odelay remains my favorite album of all time.

Most of Beck's music is typically labelled as "Alternative", and as much as I usually hate that term, that's what it is. Odelay is an eclectic mish-mash of styles, ranging from country ("Sissyneck") to rap ("Where It's At") to grunge ("Devil's Haircut"), etc. The album bears a lot of similarity to the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique" in its production and usage of sampling. The Dust Brothers were always a better fit for Beck than Nigel Godrich (of Radiohead fame).

Odelay opens with the hardest rocking track on the album in "Devil's Haircut". It then segues into "Hotwax", an offbeat country rap song that, while not a single, embodies the album more than any other song. Later on, lead single "Where It's At" is the Dust Brothers at their best: a classic alt hip-hop song that heavily samples a sex education film (also called "Where Its At"). The album closes with "Ramshackle", shifting the mood with a slower melancholy track that would be almost more suitable on Mellow Gold or Mutations.

I've been listening to Odelay for years, and it was a big part of my childhood, Some claim that it's aged poorly, but it sounds just as fresh and brilliant as it did when I was 4. While albums like "OK Computer" and "Nevermind" are often seen as the best of the 90's, my favorite is Odelay.

Score: 10/10 | Favorite Tracks: Hotwax, The New Pollution, Where It's At

[Kenny]

Beck - Odelay

Beck has always been one of those artists who I've been meaning to check out a full album from, but I for some reason have never gotten around to it. Good friends of mine often linked me to Beck songs which I've liked but it's always hard with an artist knowing what album is going to get you to like them first up.

For me, Odelay proved to be a nice start. The album starts off with the very riff driven Devil's haircut, but if that's what you're expecting for the rest of the album, all you need to do is skip on to the next track Hotwax. Upon first listen, this track feels like a bit of a sample/effects bombardment but it's followed by New Population.

I'm not sure whether it was me getting used to this album or what, but it felt like as this album went on, the better it got. Tracks like Lord Only Knows, Jack-Ass and Sissyneck were the highlights for me and it's easy to see why Where it's at won a grammy.

There's a lot to admire about Beck. He's clearly not a guy who likes to get pigeon-holed into one genre, so he finds a way to mesh a bunch of genres onto this really good album. I acknowledge the fact that I'm probably going to underrate it a little this time around, but I can see Odelay as an album that will grow on me and possibly become something I really love. For something that you can listen to while hanging out with your mates and having a few drinks, it'd be really hard to go past.

Favourite tracks: Lord Only Knows, Jack-Ass, Sissyneck

Overall score: 8/10

[J@3]

I've never really listened to any Beck albums so I was interested to see what I'd think of this.

For the negatives, I'll be honest, right off the bat the music is too slow for me. It seems to drag on a bit, a lot of the songs are like a minute too long and some of the lyrics are kinda dumb.

I think some of the songs are too cluttered, for lack of a better word. Derelict, High 5 and The New Pollution for example have so much going on in the background, and his vocals drone so it's hard to stay interested or for the songs to have any real impact.

A lot of them were also just too slow for me to deal with. Ramshackle seems to go forever, and Jack-Ass is the same. Ramshackle is over the top though. For such a slow, "quiet" song, going for nearly 6 minutes is way too long for me.

On to the positives, and surprisingly there are some. For starters, he is a really good rapper. I found myself enjoying his rap songs so much more than anything else on the album. In particular Novacane and Where It's At, I listened to them both multiple times. Hotwax is also pretty good.

I think though why I enjoyed them so much wasn't necessarily that I like rap or anything it was the fact that the songs were "louder" and had some sort of impact. I didn't feel like I needed to be some hippie sitting in a field eating mushrooms to enjoy the music. If he made a rap album I'd be interested in listening to it, the way he uses guitars and such to make his beats is really cool.

Also Devil's Haircut is alright too. It could be heavier (especially if that's meant to be his rock song) but it's decent as it is. I liked the riff at the start, bit disappointed that didn't continue throughout.

So overall, I knew I wouldn't completely enjoy this because our music taste are vastly different but it was actualyl better than I thought. To find 4 of 14 songs that I liked is a pretty good ratio for this sort of thing;

Really liked: Novacane, Where It's At
Liked: Hotwax, Devil's Haircut
Disliked: Diskobox, Readymade, Sissyneck, Minus, The New pollution, Derelict, Lord Only Knows, High 5
Hated: Ramshackle, Jack-Ass

5.5/10

[Doobie]

I'm in this in the next coming weeks when I get internet at home.

[Lamrock]

Sssssssooooooooo.... Do you want to suggest an album badreligiouau?

[Lamrock]

Double post.

[Kenny]

Ok, my album is going to be from my namesake:

Code: Select all

Bad Religion - Against the Grain

http://www.y0utube.com/view_play_list?p=762E9EEB9F155F60

Wasn't quite sure if I needed to conceal that link, but yeah, it should all be there.

[Doobie]

Is this dying already? I'm in for the next album. I really want you guys to check out the album I have planned too.

[Oznogrd]

unfortunately im backing out due to mass amounts of busy schoolwork. Cant even get through odelay If its still on when i get through this crap, i could possibly join back up

[Lamrock]

Yeah, if Jae doesn't want to suggest one, then you're up next Doobs. Meant to check out that Bad Religion one, and still might, but have yet to get around it.